Duke Energy plans new nuclear buildout in 2025 strategic plan

Duke Energy is looking to add large light water reactors and small modular reactors to its fleet in the coming years to meet increased energy demands expected in its southeast region.

In a recent announcement, the company said it plans to add more nuclear to its generation mix-as well as build new natural gas plants and extend the lives of some of its coal plants-over the next 15 years, according to its 2025 Carolinas Resource Plan. The plan says that in the next decade and a half, energy needs are expected be eight times more than that of the previous 15 years.

Duke Energy, which operates the largest nuclear reactor fleet in the U.S., is evaluating adding large LWRs as well as SMRs. It is specifically eyeing an SMR at either its Belews Creek, N.C., plant or a large LWR at its W. S. Lee site in Cherokee County, S.C., with projected in-service dates by 2037. The company said it will also expand licensing activities to include both LWR and SMR sites to preserve optionality.

About-face? The news that Duke Energy plans to reinvest in nuclear plants harkens back to a decade ago, when the company had targeted a build out of six large LWRs within its region.

The company currently holds a combined license for two AP1000s in South Carolina: Lee-1 and -2. A combined license application for two AP1000s at Duke's Harris plant site at New Hill, N.C., was suspended in 2013 but not withdrawn. Two AP1000s planned for Levy County, Fla., were terminated in 2018.